28 March 2023 , 20:34
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Mike McDaniel showed himself to be a master of the microphone as well as an impressive head coach in his debut season with the Miami Dolphins, and he had reporters laughing again at the NFL's Annual League Meeting on Monday.
The Commanders have been gripped by chaos under the ownership of owner Daniel Snyder in recent years, with a series of reports exposing a culture of harassment and toxicity within the organisation.
Snyder bought the Commanders, the team he supported as a child, in 1999 for $800million, but fans have been starved of success and attendances have declined, with the myriad of factors combining to lead to the sale of the team.
Reports on Tuesday said a $6billion bid had landed from a consortium led by businessman Josh Harris, with NBA legend Magic Johnson on board. If successful, it would be the largest sale of a sports team in the world, surpassing the $4.65b paid for the Denver Broncos last year and far exceeding the offers for Manchester United so far as the Glazers consider selling up.
McDaniel faced questions on the impending sale of the Washington Commanders after spending three seasons as a junior member of the coaching staff in DC early in his career, and it is clear even at a trivial level that things were not exactly running smoothly.
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“Wow, the organization is worth that much?” an astonished McDaniel. “And, you know, I couldn’t get free coffee?”
Joking aside, McDaniel believes the huge prices that franchises are selling for are a clear indication of the growing strength of the NFL. He continued: "It's a cool process because to me, I look at it less as you know, business is business; I look at it as the health of our league.
"It's very encouraging and to me, it's the greatest litmus test that exists, how it seems that every sale of a team is for a larger number that I feel like — I don't know if this is accurate, maybe Google could check — but I feel like Mr (Stephen) Ross, for the Dolphins, when he bought the team was the first owner to buy a team for a billion dollars.
"For me, what it means is the state of the National Football League, there are multiple billion dollars being discussed for that.
"I know the Broncos. It was like 4.5. That means the NFL has made a ton of good decisions and that we're building in the right direction because people don't spend that much money on something unless it's probably going to continue to grow."
McDaniel has earned cult hero status from NFL fans on social media in the past 12 months, thanks in no small part to his humorous press conferences and his antics while wearing a microphone on the sidelines, including poking fun at quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and saying his technique as a high-school player was "trash".